George Krompacky

I thought “mealy” was a descriptor for _bad_ Red Delicious apples. You’re telling me they’re intentionally mealy? No wonder I hate them.

In the electronic version, these kind of puzzles, where there are spelling changes to fit the theme, present a problem because the gray squares are not discernible when the clue is selected. If the shading were done in a different color or different level of gray it would be helpful. Otherwise you have to click on another clue to clearly see what is going on.

Solved but did not guess the gimmick, got it by fixing the down answers to what I knew they had to be. For me what was missing was a clue to the clue, if you will. I interpreted “ratout” to mean that “rat” had to be taken out of the other answer or clue; for “octopi,” all I could guess was that it had something to do with eight pi lol; and for tstorm, I figured there had to be a lot of t’s added in.

Fun puzzle. But I would think that dill pickles are canned, an end product of the process. What are canned are cucumbers, which become pickles. My buba’s garden, Clearfield County, PA. Tall, fragrant stalks of dill, grown next to garlic and onions. Pickling day was a big affair and with hot stuff I had to keep out of the way. Not so with pie day. My dad, uncles, and I brought back buckets of blackberries. Buba let me help wash them and fill the pies. Then she would roll out the leftover pie dough, slice it, sprinkle it with cinnamon and sugar, and bake. A treat just for me.

Great puzzle! I love it when my first pass through all clues looks bleak, but slowly I crack each quadrant. Bring me just to the verge of googling something and then it breaks open.

No notes, fun puzzle, congrats on the debut.

Trying “snake” instead of “shark” and spy” instead of “pry” slowed me down a bit. Nice puzzle.

39D. My understanding of a “bad rap” is when someone gets blamed for something they didn’t do. If that’s so, I don’t believe “bad reputation “ is a great clue. Perhaps “underserved bad reputation” would work. Still, you wouldn’t say someone has a bad rap—you’d say they GOT a bad rap, a raw deal.

2-down caused a lot of trouble because having “caw” at the bottom “Maria” immediately jumped into my head because of the song, but that was Natalie Wood.

I will confess that my greatest difficulty in this puzzle was spelling “berserk” correctly, plus remembering the name of a character who can only say one word—its own name.

I would argue the question mark after 1-across was inappropriate, especially since the word uses are related. The question mark warns us, “This might not mean what you think,” but in this case it was even odds—you’d as likely think that coinage meant “currency” as you would “neologism.” In my case, the apparent meaning read as “currency,” so the question mark led me to try to find some early 2000s slang for the answer.

I thought 57D was a bit off—a knot is a feature of a bow tie, but a bowline IS a knot, isn’t it? Better would have been “Thing shared by a bow tie and a bowline,” maybe.

I was going to complain about “trouts,” but since the constructor already asked forgiveness, let me recommend James Prosek’s book “Trout,” with his lovely illustrations. For me the trout, and the art of fly fishing, are signposts of the stark differences between now and then, when streams ran clean, kids searched for crawdads under rocks, and a person could fish in solitude without first flying to a remote destination and hiring a guide.

Kinda wish the smaller clues had been movie-themed, as well. Just rewatched it last night for probably 7th or 8th time. It’s become a holiday ritual along with Charlie Brown and the Grinch.

Great puzzle and debut. 20-across rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe it was the sheer number of them, 30, that was the problem. I know there are terms like “pet owner” and “dog owner” but maybe it’s time to start using “companion” instead. Maybe other species shouldn’t be owned.

Do kids still have the unpleasant surprise of putting their hand under a desk and finding someone’s old gum stuck there? I would have thought that is from the old days.

Does 44-across mean that certain food carts are designated halal? If so, I’ve learned something. Is there such a thing as a kosher cart, too? While I’m at it, I would have sworn they weren’t called “carts,” because it looks so strange in print!